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Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

Volunteering Portfolio This portfolio will be an overview of my volunteering experience. It will analyse the volunteering process I experienced. Going through all the various topics I covered in my university classes as well as the hands on experience I taken part in. The portfolio will go in to depth about different points related to my volunteering and how I experienced them. It will be cover major and minor parts of the volunteering process but will review the essential points within my specific volunteering. I will be concentrating on the key characteristics of my specific volunteering, the numerical data analysis within my volunteering, theories linked to my volunteering and my own experience within the voluntary organisation. The portfolio will show how important volunteering is within our society in today’s communities. ‘There is almost no area of human activity in which volunteers are not involved, and volunteering plays an important part in our cultural, social, political and economic lives. Volunteers are the lifeblood of local communities in our cities’ (Oppenheimer, 2008). This quote proves that volunteers make such a difference in all areas of our society, this is why it should be promoted because of its importance. Section 1: I completed my volunteering at a probation service in Salford. Who, ‘are part of purple futures, an interserve-led partnership. On average we annually supervise 10,000 offenders across Cheshire and Greater Manchester. High risk offenders are supervised by the National Probation Service’ (Cheshire & Greater Manchester CRC, 2015). There are various characteristics within the organisation which stand out. The probation service has a clear aim which is to, ‘protect communities across Cheshire and Greater Manchester from the impact of criminal behaviour. We do this by reducing re-offending, supervising court orders and prison licenses and helping offenders to make beneficial changes to their lives’ (Cheshire & Greater Manchester CRC, 2015). The main role the probation service does is, to try their best to integrate the offenders back into society. This way it will decrease the service user’s criminal behaviour within our communities and in particular Cheshire & Great Manchester area. Probation workers have a huge responsibility, taking care of their community as well as the criminal behaviour within that area too. This is a key part of their daily work load, they 1

Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

usually see around ten clients per day ensuring they are building their lives back up after imprisonment. The organisation offers various services which provide support and help to the offenders for example, debt, housing and employment advice. This allows the offenders to come to these services free of charge and be given the suitable support to hopefully encourage them to reintegrate into society and live a fulfilled life. The volunteers usually take charge of these roles as the probation officers do not have enough time to work with the offenders on these issues due to high caseloads. The offenders usually come in to see their probation officer and then come to see a volunteer afterwards regarding their issue they need guidance with. From my own view as a volunteer, I think it is a fantastic opportunity for both the volunteers and the offenders as they able to speak to someone other than their personal probation officer. Also the volunteers have more time to spare to provide them with the correct support linked to their issue as well as more experience within these issues. The probation officers, ‘supervise offenders aged 18 and over in the community who are sentenced by the court to either a rehabilitation activity requirement community order, a suspended order’ (Cheshire & Greater Manchester CRC, 2015). This is when the offender has been to court due to a criminal act but not getting sent to prison for it. Probation officers step in to ensure the offender is doing everything their meant to be to succeed through the probation period. Probation officers also ‘supervise offenders who are released from prison on license as well as prisoners who are released via the through the gate initiative’ (Cheshire & Greater Manchester CRC, 2015). When an offender is on license, it means they have been to prison and now on license for 12 months so they have to come to probation weekly throughout that time period. These are just a few key characteristics I personally think are the main goals within the company. Section 2: The voluntary organisation I completed my volunteering at was based at Salford probation service. The company provider is PACT and the programme is Just people. This organisation has a varied amount of staff members and volunteer members, they currently have almost 100 volunteers within Cheshire & Greater Manchester. The volunteer’s job role is, ‘assisting 2

Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

the organisation to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders back into the community. Having local people invest their time really helps offenders believe they are capable of making positive changes to their circumstances and have a stake in their local community’ (Cheshire & Greater Manchester CRC, 2015). Volunteers within this company are very important as they provide the same amount of support as the professionals. All staff members within the Salford probation office I worked in are always complementing our work ethic and how much they appreciate our help. Due to the probation officers having limited time with their clients they do not get to cover much. That is why the volunteers are so helpful within the company, as the client will come into the volunteer room after their probation session. If they have any issues they always know the volunteers will support them with anything. Salford probation specifically, have 26 volunteers but this information is from 2014 as they have not followed the data up for this year yet. The volunteers will work on various days, most volunteers have a particular day they come in each week. The volunteers are increasing each year, as last year there was only 15 volunteers at the Salford office and the year before that 2012 there was no volunteers as they did not think they was needed in their organisation. Over to the volunteering side of the company, Salford probation has never had a great amount of paid employees. In 2014 they had one paid employee and the previous year 2013 they had two paid employees. There are other paid employees like the probation officers but this is just within the volunteering aspect of the company. The service users who come to see the volunteers about their problems such as debt, family, employment issues have increased since 2012. In 2014 there was 198 service users who came to the Salford office, the previous year 2013 there was 167 service users and the year before that 2012 there was no service users. This is because there was no volunteers then as there was no volunteer coordinator to employ volunteers, so no service users could access the extra help. The service users are building up each year, which is fantastic as the volunteers are there to provide support and help free of charge so the service users should use them to their advantage. Salford probation service are funded by Cheshire and Greater Manchester Community Rehabilitation Service, this was official from April 2014 to March 2015. In 2013, from April 2013 till March 2014 they was funded by GMPT which stands for Greater Manchester 3

Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

Probation. The provider for the whole company Cheshire and Greater Manchester, fund the volunteers as well. As quoted from Chloe Duxbury the volunteer coordinator, “the company have to pay out £250 per volunteer which covers the training I give you before you start volunteering”. This was quite a surprise to me when I was told how expensive it was to employ volunteers into a company, but I suppose it works well in the long run as they do not have to pay out any other costs. The volunteers are allowed to stay as long as they want but if the company changes and gets taken over by a new company. Although the volunteers could be at risk if a new company takes over as they may not want volunteers to be employed anymore. All the volunteers at Salford probation get a lanyard with a pass on with their photo on saying volunteer, this has a date on the bottom when they first started and when they will end but this does not necessarily mean they will end then. As long as the company want volunteers you can stay as long as possible. The funding provider funds the whole company so they benefit well from employing volunteers. Volunteers provide free employment, free services and benefit the company as a whole as they can support the employees and the service users. It guarantees the company great service at no cost, building the business up as more members of staff are employed. The company as a whole has definitely improved as you can see from the information above. All of the numbers have increased particularly the volunteers and the service users. It shows that Cheshire & Greater Manchester have successfully funded the right amount of volunteers and paid staff to promote their business. This shows that service users want to come to the probation office for support and help as they know it is a free service which is an advantage. As the probation officers do not have enough time to spend with the clients it lets the volunteers gain extra experience as they are able to communicate and guide the clients ensuring they have the correct support.

Section 3:

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Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

‘The Big society agenda as defined by the cabinet office: community empowerment, opening up public services; and social action’ (Ishkanian and Szreter, 2012). This theory relates to my volunteering as they always try to ensure everyone feels welcome when coming into the environment. It does work well as all voluntary members are volunteers because they feel they want to be a more active member of society. It is a successful theory as it works, volunteers are happy to give up their free time as they are contributing to society. Although just because it works at my volunteering a probation office, does not mean it will be such a success throughout all of Britain. From the home office, ‘A short paper – Building the Big Society – was published in May 2010 and said that the Government would: encourage volunteering and involvement in social action’ (Woodhouse, 2015). This is the main issue with the big society, the other ideas brought up was suitable but this one is unrealistic. Not all members of society have the spare time to volunteer due to family life, full time work hours and other life issues which are more important to them. The government need to think about this theory carefully and realise it does not suit everyone. It would work if everyone had the time as it would bring communities closer by working together and contributing to each other’s needs but it will just not happy in today’s world. Another problem which has been raised in this theory is that, ‘much of the public critism of the big society idea has been that it is a cover for spending cuts. There the problem is a divergence between the rhetoric and reality as people perceive it, intensified by an element of bad timing’ (Connelly and Hayward, 2012). This shows that most of the public believe this theory has been raised to cover the spending cuts, that the government have made and realised they made a mistake so now need to cover up by making members of the public work for free. The big society has advantages and disadvantages, it does ensure communities become closer as they working together and helping each other by giving up their free time for no cost. Although it is not right that members of the public should have to be encouraged to volunteer free of charge when most people in Britain struggle with money problems already. Another concept which relates to my volunteering organisation is social capital. ‘Social capital is the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition. Acknowledging that capital can take a variety of forms is indispensable to 5

Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

explain the structure and dynamics of differentiated societies’ (Halpern, 2005). This is Bourdiea’s and Wacquant view on social capital, there are a variety of different views from theories over the years. Some theories for example Woolcock and then Putnam had the theory of bonding, bridging and linking within social capital. ‘Michael Woolcock has made a particularly helpful distinction between: a) bonding social capital, which denotes ties between like people in similar situations, such as immediate family, close friends and neighbours; b) bridging social capital, which encompasses more distant ties of like persons, such as loose friendships and workmates; and c) linking social capital, which reaches out to unlike people in dissimilar situations, such as those who are entirely outside the community, thus enabling members to leverage a far wider range of resources than are available within the community’ (Field, 2003). This theory is how individuals group together whether their family, friends or live in the same neighbourhood. It is about how people can bond if they already know each other, they can bridge together if they only know each other a little bit and then they can link together if they have never met before and have different situations in life. It shows that individuals can work together if they all put the effort in. Social capital is all about bringing people who do not usually interact with each other together to make a closer community. It improves social networks as individuals are able to volunteer within different organisations and build up networks with new people. Bringing people together also builds trust between strangers and lets them share life experiences with each other. Although all of these are positive aspects of social capital, there are some negatives as well. Social capital is all about bringing individuals together to get closer to the community members and build new relationships. But this cannot always happen as most communities in this day and age are not close just because of the modern world today. So it will take some time to rebuild the communities just because of how they are at the moment. I have noticed this within my volunteering experience, during my training I noticed my volunteer coordinator spoke about volunteering brings the community closer. Although just because some people volunteer does not particularly mean everyone is becoming closer. Volunteering does improve networks though, that is the main reason I volunteer to improve my social networks to get new contacts for when I finish university. Social capital is seen throughout my volunteering, members of the public working in a group volunteering 6

Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

improving the services free of charge. Social capital has similarities to the big society. It is about individuals volunteering to improve their communities by working together and getting to know everybody within their area. Section 4: Firstly I applied to a variety of different volunteering programmes but essentially I wanted to volunteer at a probation service due to my interest being based on this job role. Salford probation service was the first to get back to me explaining they was currently taking on a number of volunteers to improve their services and asked me to go in for an interview. So I went in and was asked about five questions based on difficult service users and other situations. I passed that and was then asked to come back to the office the following two weeks to complete my training. The training lasted for two days for six hours each day, I thoroughly enjoyed the training days. It built my knowledge up and made me feel very confident within the probation office environment. The volunteer coordinator Chloe Duxbury, was the teacher for our training, she had used a variety of ways to train us up including role play. Chloe also taught us a variety of techniques of how to speak to the service users and how to react to their issues. The training went extremely well, I learnt a variety of new information based on the probation service. In my seminar class when I filled out journal 1 I answered a question whether I think my chosen volunteering organisation will be successful. I knew at this point it would be as I had asked questions throughout my interview and I knew I would get a good amount of hands on experience. After my training, the following week I came in for an induction. Throughout the day I was shown around the building, introduced to the members of staff and volunteers. I then stayed with four volunteers who shown me what activities they usually do while they volunteer. The induction improved my confidence and self-esteem within the environment as I knew my way around. The following week I completed my first day of volunteering, I stayed for 2 hours and was just shown how to complete different activities. I spoke to a number of different volunteers about their experience up to and asked them a variety of questions. There was no service users in so I just helped out by making some posters linked to the new

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Sarah Newhouse 13125649 John Goldring Volunteering & Community Networking

jobs and courses available in the area. I enjoyed my first day as all the people I met was really friendly and explained everything to me about the job role. The following week I went in and I was the only volunteer in that day which worried me as I knew I was not that clear on the job role to complete independently. Although the first two hours, Chloe the volunteer coordinator explained there was two clients coming in at different times and said if I need her help I could ask her for it. So firstly I worked with one client on my own, I thought I would give it a go at first. The client wanted help with his debt problems as he had missed previous payments so I spoke to him for about fifteen minutes asking what he wanted me to sort for him and then begin to ring the companies up for him. I explained on the phone I was ringing on behalf of my client who I was with in Salford probation office and they just wanted to speak to the client to allow me to speak on behalf of him. I then went on to sort his issue out and explained to the person on the phone how the client could only pay a certain amount per month. I arranged this throughout most of the phone calls, although some of the companies did not allow him to pay such low amounts due to his high debt. So I explained to them if they will not allow him to pay the particular amount then he cannot pay at all. It was two out of four people who allowed him to pay the certain amount the other two individuals said it was not possible for him to pay such a low amount. So I explained to my client why it was not possible and advised him to go and see the citizen’s advice bureau. He took my advice and said he would make an appointment for the following week. After I had dealt with his issue, the following hour another client arrived. This client arrived into the volunteer room with his probation officer, she explained what he needed guidance with and asked if I knew what I was doing. The client wanted help with filling out a form to get access to his son after he had come out of prison. I knew this form was essential to him as he explained to me he was very worried and upset about his exgirlfriend stopping him from seeing his son. I ensured I filled out the form correctly but some words was confusing me. The form was really big and a lot of questions I had to help him a...